Structural Designs and Construction Technologies for California Highway Bridges

The California highway bridge construction market is the largest in the United States and still growing. It arguably represents the greatest concentration of highway bridge expenditure in the world. To gain insight into this important engineering and construction market, this paper reviews the technological context of California's bridge construction sector from three perspectives: A technological overview, current technological directions, and emerging trends. The paper describes the dominance of the California Department of Transportation in designing and administering highway bridge projects and highlights the emergence of standardized cast-in-place prestressed concrete box girder bridges as the dominant design. Contractors have responded to this standardized design with continuous incremental improvements through adaptation of construction process technologies. The paper concludes that falsework, formwork, and concrete placement technologies are particularly important in gaining and maintaining a competitive advantage for construction of these bridges. This has led to specialized differentiation through firms seeking technological-based market niches.